# if you could do \_anything\_ for a living **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 14, 1999, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711 "1999-10-14T08:21:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 1999, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/41 "1999-10-15T01:51:00Z")
I wouldn’t mind being a cartoonist either, I wish I had more discipline. Or a Fantasy novel author. Or a Porn director. Or a Helicopter pilot. Or Natalie Portman’s panties. * * * “Waheeey! ‘Duck!’ Get it?” “Errr… No…” “Duck! Sounds almost exactly like fu-” ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 1999, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/42 "1999-10-15T01:59:00Z")
I would like to work in a large aquarium or zoo giving tours. I would absolutely love to do that at the Shedd Aquarium in Chi. I fully plan on making that a reality someday when I live in a bigger city. I want to give tours of the bears or the penguins. * * * Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. [http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html](http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![timmar68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@timmar68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/timmar68)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 1999, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/43 "1999-10-15T03:35:00Z")
I love my job, I wouldn’t change it, but I’d like to do hair and make-up for the movies. That’d be cool! I’ve come close…I’ve cut people’s hair for commercials that they were about to do (it was local, and on a channel like 93, and on at 3 a.m, but still…). And I’ve done someone that was in a traveling opera show. Boy, was he picky! * * * MaryAnn Sometimes life is so great you just gotta muss up your hair and quack like a duck! ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/44 "1999-10-16T00:34:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I wanna be a junkie when I grow up. I thought know one ever said that? * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy ---
**Author:** ![White\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f19dbf/32.png) [@White\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/45 "1999-10-16T00:56:00Z")
I’d want to be a lawyer if it was like it was in the movies. But it’s not, so I’ll have to do something with animals. They’re easier to deal with than people (present company excepted, of course). * * * **White Wolf** “Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.” “Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them.” ---
**Author:** ![chief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@chief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chief)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/46 "1999-10-16T01:49:00Z")
id love to be a real rock n’ roll star! a famous one too (probably a guitarist in a big band) * * * Chief’s Domain - [http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi](http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi) ---
**Author:** ![Chihuly\_s\_Eyepatch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b77776/32.png) [@Chihuly\_s\_Eyepatch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuly_s_Eyepatch)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/47 "1999-10-16T13:25:00Z")
A muleskinner. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/48 "1999-10-16T13:29:00Z")
I’d like to be a musician, or an actress, or a writer. I can’t play or sing a note, and I’m too old & tired to become famous at acting, so my best bet is writing. I’m not half bad, really. I just don’t have the time right now to sit down & _write._ But I really would like to be a rock star… ---
**Author:** ![Yankee\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/7ea924/32.png) [@Yankee\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yankee_Blue)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/49 "1999-10-16T14:45:00Z")
I’d like to be a casting director - finding the right person for the right role, people with actual talent and not just looks. In fact I like most of the movie tech support jobs - property master, sound tech, continuity, or costumer wound be cool too. Or maybe I should just own the studio - but a forties/fifties style owner with mega-power, not like the wussy studio heads today. * * * …at night, the ice weasels come… ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/50 "1999-10-16T18:38:00Z")
No bars to talent or ability? I’d want to be so many damn things… but the one that springs to mind first is best-selling novelist and wildly successful screenwriter both. Then (hugely syndicated) radio talk show host. Then photographer. All three. * * * * * * This is a non-smoking area. If we see you smoking, we will assume you are on fire and act accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/51 "1999-10-16T20:26:00Z")
Chairman of the Federal Reserve. You think those economists and financial journalists are confused now? I’d wear different colored ties for tightening and loosening until someone figured it out, then I’d change. I’d never carry the same thickness of briefcase. I’d drop words like “panic” and “undervalued” into the same after-dinner speech. My Humphrey-Hawkins testimony would sound like a Dennis Leary routine. ## And oh, the groupies! You think rock stars have it good? “Come here, baby, let me raise your interest and increase your liquidity. My M1 velocity is accelerating!” Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 1999, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/52 "1999-10-16T21:37:00Z")
Some kind of information finder. Science or other practical stuff. I don’t care to track down humanities items. Himanities, arts etc are fine, but I don’t want to be in it. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathon\_David\_Palinor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@Jonathon\_David\_Palinor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathon_David_Palinor)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/53 "1999-10-21T06:02:00Z")
Animatronic Engineer. That sort of thing just amazes me - and I’ve only recently begun to learn just how often I’ve been fooled into thinking something was real. Everything from the St. Bernard in Beethoven to the dolphin in Flipper - it’s simply amazing. * * * \>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>-(o)-\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\<\< Life is a tapestry. Each new day brings with it the opportunity to sew by word and deed within the heart of someone around us. Let us choose our colors with care. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/54 "1999-10-21T06:14:00Z")
I would make computerized special effects for TV/Films. Second choice would be animation. There is something incredible about bringing fantasy to reality * * * “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good things.” --Edgar Degas ---
**Author:** ![saraam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@saraam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saraam)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/55 "1999-10-21T20:51:00Z")
Skydiving instructor. Never been skydiving before, but that’s the dream job. But I will settle for eventually working for the World Bank. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/56 "1999-10-21T21:14:00Z")
Novelist or Chef * * * Magnificent to behold - Greatly to be praised. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/57 "1999-10-21T21:33:00Z")
1. Leftfielder for the Red Sox. 2. Writer on par with Fitzgerald, Salinger, Joyce, etc. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/58 "1999-10-21T22:42:00Z")
I’d like to be the inventor of something that everybody simply _must_ have. Then just sit back and rake in the residuals for the rest of my unproductive, decadent life. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 1999, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/59 "1999-10-21T23:00:00Z")
‘What do they call the women that keep the guys hard between takes on the porno movie set?’ That’s called the ‘hand.’ I wanna be a gangbanger. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711/60 "1999-10-22T00:12:00Z")
A book and movie reviewer that gets paid to only review **good** books and movies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-do-_anything_-for-a-living/9711.md?page=2)